Vitamin that contributes to hair and nail growth / MON 12-25-23 / 1996 Deanna Carter hit with the lyric "My first taste of love, oh, bittersweet" / Samwise ___, companion of Frodo Baggins

• • •

Oh, and I watched Rear Window again today, because it's my favorite movie of all time. Thousands and thousands of movies I've seen, and it remains untouchable. Edith Head + Grace Kelly = me fainting, every time:

Thelma Ritter and Jimmy Stewart aren't bad either. So, good times being had by all, for sure. I managed to squeeze this puzzle in, in between drinks and dinner, and I really like the "double" nature of the theme, even though I have never heard of cherry jam and I've never ever heard of this alleged Deana Carter hit. The cherry jam is bothering me slightly more. Do people eat that? Seems like grape would come before cherry on a list of plausible jam types. But then there were probably several strawberry songs to pick from, whereas grape songs, not so much. You've got that one grapevine song, sure, but otherwise, pfft, nothing. So, cherry. OK. I'm sure someone somewhere makes / eats cherry jam. Why not? It's Christmas, so I'm feeling generous. Cherry jam for all!

I am sad to say, however, that I failed at my Downs-only solve today. I was so close, but it was inevitable that eventually my refusal to look at Across answers on Mondays would cost me. Today, it was GAMGEE that did me in (12D: Samwise ___, companion of Frodo Baggins). If I was gonna go down, I guess I don't feel too bad about going down to a name that is bizarre and shared by no one anywhere at all ever in the history of anything. My brain heard / remembered it as GANGEE (probably because of the Ganges River), and that's how it went into the grid, and sadly, my decades of doing crosswords really cost me today, as I took one look at SONE (the cross I got because of GANGEE), and thought "yup, seen it, that is definitely a thing, I learned it from crosswords." It's definitely a crosswordesey thing, but in a grid that already had stuff like SRI and SOU and singular (barf!) ARREAR, SONE seemed like it would be right at home. But no. It was SOME. So that was that. Failure. But a failure I can absolutely live with. 

Forgot who the hell [Physicist Ernst] was (MACH). If the Ernst isn't Max, I ... don't know it. But I was eventually able to infer it from the crosses (which I was inferring from the Downs, as one does when one solves Downs-only). I had SYNC for 6D: Be in harmony (JIBE) at first, and then, when I realized it was JIBE, I spelled it GIBE, which is a spelling mistake I will probably always make. Luckily, GOAN was not a plausible word at 6-Across, whereas JOAN was (6A: Essayist Didion). Had real trouble with 24D: Cloth strips on military uniforms (SASHES), as I imagine SASHES as things worn *over* uniforms (or, if you're in the Miss America pageant, swimsuits). I could not have told you what BIOTIN was before I looked it up just now, but luckily I'd at least heard it before, so could piece it together at 47D: Vitamin that contributes to hair and nail growth. The answer I struggled with most was also the strongest answer in the grid: RISK-AVERSE (30D: Reluctant, as an investor). Really had to work my inference muscles there to make that answer come into view—besides the first "R" and the "A" and the first "E," nothing was in place. It was the last thing I put in the grid. Well, the actual last thing I put in the grid was the "M" in GAMGEE, but that was only after I realized I had (at least) one square wrong. Boo hoo. 

More Holiday Pet Pics now! Who will be the pups and keetens of actual Christmas Day!? Let's find out...

["Barry the Cat by his Christmas flat" (thanks, Rebecca)]

[Athena and Aphrodite mess with mortals from their Olympian tree, as was foretold in books of yore (thanks Kathryn)]

[Mingus, so named for the little black patch on his chin as well as for his being a hep cat (thanks, Amy)]

[Pinot, just looking good, what more do you want? (thanks, Will)]

[Christmas lights meet their one true mortal enemy: Sterling the Whirling Dervish (thanks, Jim)]

[Tamla is not even here, what cat, there's no cat, move along (thanks, Tracey)]

[And finally Otis, seen here on his way to the Dogs In Silly Headwear support group. Hang in there, Otis (thanks, Annette)]